1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording medium and ink set, and a method of inkjet recording.
2. Description the Background
Inkjet recording is known as an excellent recording method capable of accommodating a comparatively wide selection of recording media. Accordingly, research and development of new types of recording apparatuses, recording methods, recording materials, etc. continue to be widely conducted.
In particular, pigment ink using a pigment as a coloring agent has been proposed for ink for inkjet recording. Pigment ink is superior to ink using a dye as a coloring agent when it comes to printing less-blurred images on plain paper because the pigment ink has excellent image density, water resistance, and weathering properties.
However, for recording media having coated layers and in particular media with poor ink absorption, images produced with pigment ink have inferior color and gloss.
In addition, it takes time to dry the ink, thereby causing problems when fixing images, etc.
To solve these problems, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-101192 (JP-2008-101192-A) describes ink for recording with which vivid images having quality close to those for commercial printing and published printed matter are formed on coated paper for printing which has poor liquid absorption ability without having trouble with drying speed.
However, the produced inkjet images printed on such coated paper have trouble with regard to the fixing property, curling, etc.
JP-2001-096902-A describes a set of aqueous ink for inkjet recording and an inkjet recording medium formed of a film substrate on which quality images are formed with the aqueous ink.
However, usable media are limited to film having high air permeability, i.e., high ink absorption, and moreover require processing to give the film a solvent-absorbing layer on one side and an ink-receiving layer on the opposite side.
Therefore, it is difficult to obtain recorded materials having a high image density on the recording media described above and free from the problems described above such as low fixing property and cockling.